Brussels, 19/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 17 December, the Council of the EU formally adopted two regulations focusing on the creation of the unitary patent, the way it will be granted and its linguistic regime. The third element consists of the international agreement in which member states participating in the system (25 out of 27) will be subject to ratifying the patent by February 2013 and which will help create the future Patents Court. The European patent was blocked for a long time but was pushed forward by last week's vote at the “Competitiveness Council” and by the European Parliament finally putting a halt to decades of hesitation. The unitary patent is, in the long-term, expected to reduce intervention costs for European companies from between €36,000 and €5,000. (SP/transl.fl)